Naming conventions: camelCase versus underscore_case ? what are your thoughts about it?The "usability" point is irrelevant for this. Code is typically written just once by one person, but let's say in the order of 1-10 times accounting for some editing and potential pair programming. But code is typically read dozen/hundreds/thousands of times by one or potentially many people. Thus making code easy to read is several magnitudes more important than having code easy to write.

How do you maintain focus when a particular aspect of programming takes 10+ seconds to complete?Just 30 seconds? Be glad you are not compiling SLOBOL: SLOBOL is best known for the speed, or lack of it, of its compiler. Although many compilers allow you to take a coffee break while they compile, SLOBOL compilers allow you to take a trip to Bolivia to pick up the coffee. Forty-three programmers are known to have died of boredom sitting at their terminals while waiting for a SLOBOL program to compile.